Rice is a decent player, but I think us Villa fans me included struggle with the fact he’s talked about as a top class player whereas the reality is he’s a slightly better Scott Parker.
Luiz is a bit off lately, he seemed to really, really enjoy playing when there was less intensity during lockdown and no fans.
I do love the guy, I just want to see him try and influence the pace of the game a bit more and slow it down when we’re up against it. He doesn’t go hiding but he just seems to lose his influence in certain games, he wasn’t picking up the ball from the defence as much as he does sometimes yesterday, yet we needed him to be an option.
I’m not convinced he’s actually better playing higher up as his lack of physical presence is a bit more visible, I’m quite happy with him controlling the danger zone between midfield and defence.